F 
545 

?46 










mu^ 




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m 





FERRYMAN 




u^j/i fiu^A^^'^i^- 










miui iLi 




i 



/ iry 



BY 




F. M. FERRYMAN 




Kerr's Printing House, 
pana, illinois. 

1907. 






LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 

OCT 3 >90r 

Q Copyncht Entiy 
/CLASS A XXC, No. 
COPY B. 



^ 



Copyrighted 

igoy, by 

F. M. Pe7'ry7na?i. 

All rights reserved. 




':Trcface. 



N presenting this little book to the 
IT| ^public, the author would not dare to 
^- 'claim perfection, for to err is human, 
p^^^^^^^^ but we have sought to give the conditions 
as they existed in' this countr}' in early days, and 
we have not sought to display style or learning, 
but we have sought to give the little book the 
same tone and as near in the same language that 
we used in earl}^ days as prudence will allow, 
and we will leave the reader to judge of the merits 
of the little book for himself; and we hope the good 
people will pardon any errors they may find. 
We hope you will be interested in the reading of 
it, and if some thoughts are presented which will 
prepare the readers the better for the battles of 
life and for usefulness to others, then we are 
well repaid for all our trouble. 

Thii: Author. 



12 




3 nt'oobiiclioyi. 

!E believe as the Author of this book 
is so well known through this part of 
the country it would hardly be neces- 
sary to write much of an introduction; but by 
being solicited by friends who had learned that 
we were born and raised here in Illinois, we 
consented to do so; Mr. Chalfant first spoke of it 
then many others. 

You wall find the little book entirely original, 
nothing borrowed, and what you find herein 
that is good or bad, is our own production. The 
book does not take sides in party politics or 
church denominations, but the Author has given 
some of his own thoughts on different questions. 



13 



ijarc.v. 



g^^W N early days we had a great deal of hard 
S^ II ^M work to clear the land and then to make 
S^^and keep up the rail fences; and it took 
four times the work to raise a corn crop as it does 
now; and it took four times the work to cut the 
firewood as it does now; and it took so much 
work to prepare the material and make the cloth- 
ing. So the pioneers had to keep pretty busy; 
and when the corn was in roasting-ear we had 
to watch it prett}^ closely for the squirrels in the 
day-time, and the coons in the night would 
destroy a great deal of it, and later on if it was 
not gathered early the deer and the turkeys and 
prairie-chickens would eat it up. 



H 



Occii pal'iovi.\ 



1^' N pioneer days after the corn was laid 

g^ l| 5^ by, as we called it, then we had a while 
WOT^ that we did not work much. There 
was not much harvesting to do, as our 
hay harvest was in the prairie grass, and that 
was done late in August or September, and 
during this idle spell the men would hunt and 
fish, and those that did not have plenty of bees 
would hunt "bee trees", and get honey to do 
them for the year. 

The boys would go into the woods and dig 
Ginseng; and when we would dry it we got 
twenty-five cents per pound, and when we sold 
it green we got ten cents per pound, and a boy 
could make sood wao:es for them times. 



15 

|;: r was Eighty Years Ago, in the wild 

^ If ^ woods, on Mitchell's Creek, near a good 
S:f^^ Spring, Jacob Ferryman, the father of 
the author of this little book, pitched 
his cabin. He was of Scotch descent, and ni}^ 
Mother was of German descent; they raised a 
large family, of which we was the sixth. 

The writer was born April 26th, 1836, and 
raised there when it was almost impossible for a 
boy to get an edncation; but hew^as supposed to 
risk his chances with the wolf and the rattle- 
snake, and all the dangers seen and unseen of 
that early day. So you see the writer has lived 
in Illinois more than three score and ten years, 
and if, in speaking of my native State, we spread 
the "paint" on pretty thick, you will pardon us. 



Maybe we have enjoyed life more than the most 
of people have, and if the reader of this book 
finds that the tone of it shows too much of a 
disposition for mirth, remember it is our nature 
and we cannot help it, and we attribute it to our 
raising. The man who lives in Illinois and don't 
enjoy life is a man who does not know a good 
thing when he has it. The man who lives in 
Illinois and does not see beauties on every hand 
to make him glad, is mentally cross-eyed. 







17 



SLvh| ^^|Vat^ dgo. 




WANT to sing a little song, 

Of the people and their ways; 
And how the people got along 

Awa}^ back in early days. 
We rather thought the quickest way 

To let the people know, — 
We would sing to them 

Of how we lived. 
Just Sixty Years Ago. 

When coon-skins was two bits apiece, 

And beeswax was a bit, 
And eggs four cents a dozen — 

That was all that we could get; 
And deer-skins always went at par. 

And feathers was not slow; 
And that's the money people had 

Just Sixty Years Ago. 

And, Oh! that big old fire-place, — 

It took a sight of wood; 
We would haul it on a "lizzard" — 

And we would pile on all we could; 
We would haul a big long hickory log, 

Especially when there was snow; — 
For we worked two yoke of cattle then;- 

Just vSixty Years Ago. 



The school house was of elm logs — 

The bark was all left on; 
I never saw no other kind 

Till I was nearl}- grown. 
The children got some learning, 

But, of course, it was rather slow; — 
M}^! how the teacher "licked" the "kids' 

Just Sixt}' Years Ago. 



And when it came to raising corn, 

We did not get much rest 
For the want of tools to work with. 

We had to do our best. 
We plowed with wooden mouldboard plow; 

And our lines were made of tow; 
And that's the kind of tools we had 

Just Sixty Years Ago. 

And when the people went to church 

The}' always wore their best; 
They wore their home-made pantaloons — 

i hate to tell the rest. 
The girls wore striped dresses, 

And the boys wore shirts of tow; — 
And that's the way the people dressed 

Just Sixty Years Ago. 



We did not care for stocks or bonds, 

They were not in our line; — 
But, if we wanted whiskey. 

We got it every time. 
The boys could bake the "johnnycake" 

And the girls knew^ how to mow; 
Oh! was not we a "joll}^ set?" 

Just Sixty Years Ago. 




20 



X traveling over the great fertile prairie 
IJi ^ State of Illinois, and viewing its many 
^^ railroads, its man}^ beautiful cities and 
^^ towns, its school houses, its churches, 
its broad fields of waving grain, its orchards 
bending under their load of golden fruit, its vast 
population of industrious and intelligent citizens, 
its mills, and its factories, one can hardly realize 
that nearly all of this great improvement has 
been made in the last sixty years, but such is 
the case. Sixty years ago these prairies were an 
unbroken howling wilderness, where the wolf 
and deer roamed at will and raised their young 
unmolested, and where the rattlesnake was in 
his glor}'. The pioneer had unknowingl}- blazed 
the way for what was to come; he did not seem 
to know that these wild prairies was soon to 
become the garden spot of the world. 




21 



^^Ia^lc.^ o[' I Tic (^citrt) §cM:fer.>. 

|0 better class of citizens has ever lived 
in Shelby county, or ever will live in 
Shtrlby county, than the early settlers; 
the Rasey's. the Hall's, the Pugh's, 
the Corley's, the Rhoades', the Wakefield's, the 
Small's, the Middlesworth's, the Collier's, the 
Yant's, the Smith's, the Warren's, the Whit- 
field's, the Neal's, the Killam's, the Douthit's, 
and mau}^ others that we could name, who were 
just as good. The writer feels proud of the 
memory of such people, and while the most of 
them have passed away, we thank God that such 
men and women have lived in the world to make 
ourpathwa}' brighter, and make the world better. 
And w^here 3'ou find one of those early settlers 
you find a man whose love for his friends can 
hardly be severed; a love so true, so deep, so 
loyal, .so God-like that if they possessed no other 
good trait that one trait alone makes them noble. 



22 



Goiricj 3c>ac(\ 




NOTWITHSTANDING the many dis- 
advantages of the pioneer life, there 
was a charm in it which none can 
describe; and an old man who was 
here in early days almost feels like he wants to 
go back and live his bo3'hood days over in the 
wild new countr}-, where everything was so near 
like nature formed it; he wants to see the wild 
animals gallop over the hills; he wants to hear 
the howl of the wolf; he wants to hear the cry of 
the hounds w^hen pursuing the deer or the wolf; 
he wants to hear the gobble of the wild turkey 
in the spring-time; he wants to see the prairies 
covered with wild flowers of all colors; he wants 
to hear the crack of the rifle that brings down 
the deer or turkey; he wants to hear the "pop" 
of the whip as the "big brother" comes up the 
hill with his two voke of faithful cattle and their 



23 

big load of hickory wood; he wants to hear the 
thud of the flax-brake and the hum of the spin- 
ning wheel. 

()h! carry us back to the plain simple life 

In the log cabin, let us see 
The roaring log fire in the big fireplace 

\\'here the dove of peace hovers 
Over the hearthstone and delights 

In the rewards of industry and virtue. 




W^- '"^"i?<^;^= 

/-/^V^^^^^^^^-^ 




24 



IXTY 5'ears ago there was a law in 
^i ^ Illinois that all able-bodied men from 
^ ^ the age of i8 to 45 should meet and 
drill as soldiers every alternate Sat- 
urday, from the first Saturday in April till the 
third Saturday in November. And they muster- 
ed at my father's every time. John L. Ferryman, 
my cousin, was Captain, a large, tall young man, 
with a powerful voice; we could hear him give 
the commands very plainly for two hundred 
yards. He wore a stove-pipe hat, with his long 
red plume stuck in his hat, and he looked nice 
and I think he felt big. Ben. Tallman was 
Orderly Sergeant. I think there was about one 
hundred men in our precinct; and when Ben. 
would call the roll, at nine o'clock, ever}^ man 
w^ould answer to his name. Uncle Philip Perry - 
man was fifer, and Harvey Cummings was 
drummer. 



25 



In the morning pretty early the men would 
begin to come in, and a good many women would 
come to see the men muster, and some of them 
would walk three or four miles. 

We would listen for the delegation from the 
West. The fife and drum and the Captain was 
in that delegation; and when we would hear the 
music and see that' red plume coming around the 
bend of the road, a boy would think his height 
was ubout eight feet in his stockings and his 
avoirdupois was about seven hundred pounds. 

James Mitchell run a "still-house" near by 
and when the men would go into ranks with two 
or three "snorts" of Mitchell's "best" they 
would seem to forget but what they were in the 
midst of the Revolutionary war, and each man 
had patriotism and whiskey enough in him for 
a half-dozen men, but when the whiskey would 
die in him the patriotism would die too, but the 
man would live by a small majority. 



26 

?)lo "Di uoi;ce. 

^M^N the early days, when a field was ready 
^ ji ^ to plant in corn, all the bo^^s and girls 
^^^ of the neighborhood would gather there 
^^^ and some would drop the corn and some 
would cover it with hoes; and sometimes a young 
man and young woman would meet in the field 
and stop and talk and sometimes make a bargain 
to get married; and if it was very warm both 
would be barefooted; and when they made an 
engagement, that engagement was made to stay. 
The divorce court got no work there; and when 
they got married ,v all the people for miles around 
would be there, and all would contribute some- 
thing to make up a big dinner of the best that 
the country afforded. The men would get to- 
gether and cut logs and build them a house and 
most every family for miles around would give 
them a quilt or blanket, or pillow, and soon they 
were pretty well fixed. Those people raised 
boys and girls of large, strong brain, and some 



27 



of them boys are in Congress, or the Senate, and 
some are on the Jndges bench, and the girls 
filling eqnally as honorable positions. For re- 
member, that our wisest and best statesmen 
come from the field. Any land that will grow 
corn will grow statesmen, and the statesmen 
who grow up between the rows of corn will do 
to depend upon anywhere. 



28 



9Si.% anh tfie '-^ofuc.v 




|N earl}^ days my Father gotWni . Sullivan 
to come and help him to butcher a beef, 
and it was getting dark when they got 
done, and Mr. Sullivan started home 
with some of the beef, and the wolves gathered 
around him so thick that he had to climb a tree 
to save himself, and he hollered with all his 
might, but it was windy and no one heard him 
until nearly morning. My Father heard him 
and started tg go to him, but Billy hollered and 
told hini not to come alone; then he went and 
got John Hall to come with all his hounds, and 
when the}^ shot off their guns and the hounds 
made a great noise, the wolves left, and Billy 
came down almost chilled; and he said there was 
between thirty and forty of the wolves. Such 
was pioneer life in Illinois. 




29 

^ i ^a b va 1 1 ta g c ^. 

HAD to work under some great 
disadvantages: two of the greatest 
§ was the want of mone}^ to do business 
,=r.^^^«^ with, and the want of tools to work 
with. The paper money was so uncertain, some- 
times a bill which was good to-day was worth 
nothing to-morrow. It was not Government 
money; some of it was State money, but some- 
times the State could not redeem its money. If 
you sold a man a horse you would get from 
twenty-five to forty dollars for him, and if you 
got it in paper you must go to where they had a 
"Detector"; a little paper that was issued everj^ 
two weeks, showing what the different money 
was worth at the time the ' ' Detector' ' was issued. 
You would often get bills representing at least 
one hundred dollars to get thirty dollars. This 
bill is worth twenty-five cents to the dollar, and 
this bill is on a bank which is a little better, it 
is worth forty cents, and so on; and w^e got very 



so 



small prices at best. We had almost no market. 
Sometimes produce was hauled to St. Louis in 
wagons and fat hogs were driven to the same 
market. And the tools we had to farm with 
were mostl}^ home made, and now farmers would 
not think of using such tools at all. We had 
nothing like a harrow or roller, the clods must 
be broke up with hoes, and the corn must be 
hoed two or three times; and the wheat and oats 
must be cut with reap hooks, and if a man would 
reap one acre per day he w^as doing well. But 
the people had what they was used to, and as 
they did not expect anything better they worked 
on pretty well contented. 



31 

l^'.'-; ■■'--''-'' 'IT WAS probabl}' in 183 1, there was a 
& T< ^ little snow, and my Father was gone 
^^^ from home, and when nearly dark, the 
^^^ two big dogs smelled something down 
about the back of the field, and they would bark 
and growl and whine, and my Mother tried to 
get them to go, but the}^ was afraid to go. When 
Father came home my Mother told him how the 
dogs had acted, and as soon as it was light 
enough to see, in the morning, my Father went 
down there and came back, and said there had 
been a large bear went between the fence and 
the bank of the creek. He got two of his neigh- 
bors to go with him, and they followed his track 
about a mile and found where he had went into 
a patch of thick ha*zels, and had broke down a 
lot of the bushes with his teeth to lay on to keep 
him out of the snow; but he ran out before they 
got up close, and all the dogs -after him, and 
every little while he would stop to fight the dogs, 



32 



and when the men would come up, he would 
run again, but finall3^ he w^as so large and fat 
he tired out, and the men got up pretty close, 
but the}^ were afraid to shoot for fear they would 
hit the dogs; but after awhile one of them got a 
pretty good chance and shot him through behind 
the shoulders, and when the blood began to run 
and he began to sink, all the dogs piled on him, 
and the men ran up and beat them off and cut 
his throat. They did not weigh him, but they 
thought he would weigh near three hundred 
pounds. 




33 

IR BELIEVE it was in the year 1841, 
the wolves were killing my Father's 
pigs more than usual, and he went to 
the men who kept hounds and got 
them to come early in the morning, and they 
brought about twentj'-five dogs and they soon 
started a wolf, and it circled a little, then started 
north, and about fifteen men and twenty-five 
dogs after it, and it went north nearly to the 
knobs timber, then turned northwest to near 
where Assumption now stands, and then turned 
south to near to where Rosemond now stands, 
and they caught it just south of Rosemond, and 
about half of the men and all the dogs but eight 
had dropped out when they caught it at sun- 
down; and they said they run it about thirty-five 
miles, then they had to go about twenty miles to 
home, in the night; but two men went south to 
hunt up the Sarver's and Fraley's to come with 
fresh hounds and try for the other one, and they 



34 



were there at daylight, and my Mother had got 
breakfast for them, and I remember hearing 
Uncle John Sarver say: "Boys, I can get on 
old Nance and take mj^ two oldest dogs "Sam 
Houston"and "Davy Crockett" and I can catch 
any wolf on the earth, but I want from sun-up 
till sun-down to do it, for it takes a hard run for 
thirty or thirty-five miles, but. we'll get him." 
M> Father had found where their den was in a 
mound on the prairie about a mile east of our 
house; and they soon jumped the other wolf and 
took nearly the same route as the one did the 
day before, but when it got around the head of 
Beck's creek timber it turned south and they 
caught it just at night in a lake just west of 
where Oconee now stands. They had tied all 
the dogs that had run the day before but John 
Hall's "old Rule", along-legged spotted dog, 
that led the chase all day the day before, broke 
his rope and went in the lead all that day. Now 
the 5^oung wolves was a little larger than a rabbit. 
The next mornine all the men and all the doo:s 



35 



in the settlement, and a number of women was 
there, and during the day they caught seven 
young wolves; they didn't run very far; and 
John Hall and John Sarver said they could take 
''old Rule" and "Sam Houston" and the}- could 
catch ihe Devil. 



36 




!E sometimes hear men joke about the 
proverbial "coon skin" of earl}^ da3^s, 
but it was no joke in our boyhood, 
we had to have the Raccoon in our 
business. If the coon crop had failed we would 
have had a coon skin panic, which w^ould have 
swept all over the country. But the coon had 
one bad habit, he liked roasting-ears a little too 
well; but his diet in the spring and summer was 
frogs and crawfish and bugs, and in the fall and 
winter it was acorns and hackberries and corn. 
And if a dog was not a coon dog he was no dog 
at all; and an old experienced coon dog could 
tell better when it was a good night for coons to 
travel than a boy could; he would come to the 
door and whine and howl, then the boys w^ould 
gather their ax and away into the woods, and 
soon "old Pomp" was gone, then the}^ would sit 
down on a log and listen and after awhile away 
up the branch "y-o-w", "y-o-w"; and when 



M 



the boys would get there, whether the tree was 
big or little it had to come down, or one of the 
boys would climb up and scare his coonship out. 
The coon w^as a bad fighter, and could whip a 
dog very quickly, unless the dog understood how 
to kill them; but when we saw a dog take a 
'"running shoot" at a coon and strike it with his 
breast and knock it down, then grab it through 
the ribs, and hold it to the ground very tightly, 
we knew that dog was "onto his job", for he 
would kill it pretty quickly. 



38 



'^lie G^Jea titiccv of ^Xcii^iz 




|HE writer of this little book was born 
and raised in a log-cabin on Mitchell's 
creek, in Shelb}' count}^ Illinois, 
twelve miles south-west of Shelb}^- 
ville, the county-seat. Date of birth, April 26, 
1836. At that time there was a poor chance for 
a boy to get an education ; but we love to think 
of those days, because nature in all her beauties 
was so near like the hand of God had formed it; 
the skill of man had changed it so little, and it 
was our school and our delight to roam over the 
wide unbroken prairies, where the lark was 
singing in his native home. Where the wild 
flowers, of all colors, were more beautiful than 
Solomon in all his glory. These scenes inspired 
a feeling in a boy's heart of awe and reverence 
for the God of nature more deep and sublime 
and true, than all the preaching could inspire. 
When a boy would get on a high piece of ground 
and look around he saw a more beautiful sight 



39 



than he will ever see again on this earth, and 
his eyes would fill with tears and from the depths 
of his boyish heart he would give glory to God; 
and I don't know but that boy was better there 
and then than he ever will be again, until God 
shall call him home. 



40 

^Tlci-tV or ^A^oiHcny'^VoxU. 

fflMOTN earl}^ days, in Illinois, there was very 
^T| ^ little distinction made between man's 
^^^ work and woman's work; for the men 
^^^ could cook and w^ash and spin, and 
could do almost any kind of woman's work, and 
the women could do almost any kind of man's 
work. The girls could yoke up the cattle and 
go and cut and haul a load of wood, and some- 
times when the girls were not in the field the}' 
would go and shoot a mess of squirrels and make 
a big pot-pie for their brother's dinner. Where 
there were large families, the parents did but 
little, the boys and girls done nearly all; and 
they looked forward to the time w^hen the corn 
w^as to plant, or the flax to pull with pleasure, 
for then all the boys and girls would be together 
and have a good time; and in pulling flax they 
would take a swath four feet wide and see who 
could pull through first, and generally the girls 
would beat the boys, for it was not heavy work, 
but all depended on being quick. 



41 



!Pioii€Ct.v f'Tlal^iiitg iLtiuiGc 



|,: JlHEY would go to the woods and cut 

T?^ ^ ^ walnut tree, which would square 
^ ^ about a foot, and cut it off as long as 
% -<| it would make good lumber, then 

drag it to a pretty steep hill with the oxen, then 
score and hew it square, then line it on both 
sides; the lines an inch apart; then cut two long 
stout poles, and lay one end up the hill and prop 
the other end against trees down on the hillside, 
then run their square log out on them skids, then 
dig the dirt down so the under man would have 
level ground to walk on; then one man get above 
and one below with a whip-saw, which only cut 
as it went down; and they made real good lum- 
ber; and two good hands was supposed to cut 
two hundred feet per day. 




42 

eKiiuMncj ^ciij. . 

NOTHING in the memory of the earl}- 
settler remains more vivid than the 
chase. Fresh in our memory is our 
boyhood days, when "hunting day" 
would come, generally on Saturday unless that 
was "muster day". You may think that we 
bunted most of the time, but that is a mistake. 
We could not take the time, but one day in the 
week was regular "hunting day". All was stir 
and bustle very early in the morning, the Father 
and the two big boys would see that their guns 
were well loaded and in good fix and bullets in 
each pouch, and as soon as it was light enough 
the long ox-horn was taken down and taken out- 
side the door, and then the excitement grew 
more intense, for as soon as the long blast 
"t-o-o-o-o-t" was given every hound would stand 
on his hind feet and see which could holler the 
loudest, and big, little, old and young would 
come to the door to take part in the jubilee, even 



43 



the baby would slap his little hands and holler, 
for he knew there was something up. Then 
away to the woods and little glades they would 
go. Then we would st^nd out and listen with 
almost breathless silence, but we didn't have to 
listen very long, for directly, hark! the long- 
drawn-out "b-o-o" was heard. "Oh, they have 
struck a cold trail, that is 'old Pomp' " "Maybe 
a coon." But directly he would begin to warm 
up on his subject, and "Muse" and "Joler" 
would fall in, and directly, all at once, all would 
turn loose, pups and all. "Oh! its a deer, they 
have jumped it up." Then they would fairly 
make the woods ring for awhile; and when we 
would hear the crack of the faithful rifle we 
knew that meant fresh venison, for we knew that 
to miss a shot was not their stvle. 



44 



^cUz- ^Cuffnia 





lETER HUFFMAN was an orphan 
bo}', and he had an odd, careless way 
'^ ^ that made people laugh. Almost 
every day Peter would do something 
so odd, and so droll, and so unexpected, that he 
kept up fun for the whole neighborhood; and he 
didn't seem to know or care what the people 
said. But Peter was so honest and so indus- 
trious, and so good-hearted, and so unpretending 
that they all liked him. When Peter was nearly 
grown, he worked for John Crocker all one sum- 
mer for a nice yoke of work cattle, and by the 
time he had the cattle paid for winter was com- 
ing on, he had fallen in love with a real good 
girl by the name of Mima Brewer; and her folks 
were wealthy, but Peter did not know that that 
made any difference, and so he went to see Mima 
and found that he was very welcome. Now he 
goes to work to make a sled to take Mima sleigh- 
riding, but before he got his sled done Sunday 



45 



came, and a good snow, and Mima wanted to go 
to her Uncle's, about four miles. Now Peter 
had no horse or sleigh; now what was to be done? 
?vlima wanted to go and she must not be disap- 
pointed; and Peter borrowed a one-horse sleigh 
and went and 3'oked up his cattle, and got an 
old pair of harness and put them on "Tom" the 
near ox, and put him in the shafts, and "Jerry" 
had nothing to do but walk along at the side, 
and Peter and Mima got in the sleigh and they 
went there and back in good order. Peter soon 
got his sled done and he went and got license 
and he and Mima got in the sled and went and 
got married and went to work and soon they 
were raising more horses, more cattle, sheep and 
hogs than anybody around there, and soon they 
had a good farm, good house and barn, and 
next, they was riding in the finest carriage in 
that country, and the people that laughed at 
them when they took their first sleigh-ride had 
to walk.' 



46 



^ccz^ ^riuivig. 




HEN the pioneers would go out deer 
driving, as we called it, in the morn- 
ing and the hounds would start a 
deer, the}- had almost certain routes 
to run, and we knew pretty nearl}^ where to stand 
to get a shot, but if it got through, it was very 
apt to go several miles and circle in the woods 
for several hours, but it would come back after 
awhile and cross the road within ten feet of 
where it crossed before, and now the thing to do 
was to all go home and go to work, only, leave 
the boy that was the surest shot and had the best 
gun and the hounds would follow it, and that 
boy would have almost a dead sure thing if he 
would stay there, when it would get nearly to 
the road it would stop to see if the coast was 
clear, then the boy would shoot it through the 
heart, then he would blow the signal for help on 
the horn, then a boy was sent with a gentle horse 
to help him fetch it home. 



47 

*2*i oncer c'Joii. 

1^ : :T WOIXD seem very strange to the 
feT' ^ people now to see the "pioneer boy" 
^^^ going to the "horse mill" long before 
^^^ daylight for fear some one would get in 
ahead of him. Then when he gets home he has 
to go around the field and scare the squirrels out; 
then go away down in the valley and shake dowm 
the wild plums for the hogs to eat; then carry 
water and put it in the ash-hopper to make the 
soap; then pick w^ool while he rests; then go and 
see if the deer-skins are ready to be taken out of 
the trough and rubbed dry; then help to put the 
"chain" through the "harness" to make the 
cloth; then go and look where is the best place 
to cut prairie hay; then carry up some pumpkins 
to dry. But the "pioneer boy" was a happy, 
rollicking lad; he had just what he expected, and 
he knew he was a good shot with the rifle, and 
was handy with the ox-whip, and had a good 
"coon dog", and that was enough for him. 



48 



"^fic "C^lurb c'Joij 




|IXTY-THREE j-ears ago there was a 
school going on four miles East of us, 
and WQ went all winter. There were 
five boys of us, and I was the smallest: 
the two largest boys would get on one horse and 
the three smaller boys on the ''other horse", 
that placed me "third boy" on the "other horse" 
right on his hips; and they would go in a swift 
gallop all the way, and when we would get there 
I was almost done for. And I only learned one 
thing that winter. I learned that to be "third 
bo}'" on the "other horse" and on a keen jump 
for a four-mile dash is a hard seat for a small 
boy. I lived over it, but I have not got rested 
yet. 




49 
'-'^^^ricte fait a Si-cm b.v. 

IHEN the writer was a boy, where 
Pana now stands was an unbroken 
wilderness, and the land belonged to 
the government, and was subject to 
entry at one dollar and twenty-five cents per 
acre; but that had to be paid in gold or silver, as 
the paper money of the countr}^ was so uncertain. 
But the people doubted whether the land would 
ever be worth the money. Tom. Bell lived at 
Bell's Grove, West, and the Abbot's and a few 
others lived on the head of Beck's Creek, East; 
but the prairie where Pana stands there was 
nothing to show that man had ever been there, 
not a tree or shrub was there; but the deer and 
wolves raised their young there, and the rattle- 
snake had his owm way; only when the prairie 
burned over in warm weather, then thousands 
of them burned to death. When the men were 
first breaking up the prairie sod they would tell 
of killing twenty to thirty rattlesnakes in one day. 



50 



'^ 1 1 c Sua 



c. 




ilXTY years ago we was plowing" with 
a yoke of steers in a field that lay idle 
the year before, and we was barefoot, 
and there was a great many dead 
weeds in the field. We was plowing along, in- 
terrupting nobody, and we felt something tight 
around the foot, and we thought it w^as a forked 
or crooked weed, and we kicked, and instead of 
its coming off it rather seemed to get tighter, and 
w^e looked down and saw it w^as about a second- 
sized snake wTapped around our foot; and you 
ought to have seen him go, when we kicked the 
next time. We kicked with the spirit and with 
the understanding, when we saw^ what it was. 
It was not doing much harm, but we did not 
want it there. 



5' 

'csr,c ^!!^nr5 Cab. 

OT^^I^ WAS probably in 1837, "^3' Mother 
^Tj ^ went to see a sick woman, and stayed 
^-' :A"^':"' there until dark, but the moon rose soon 
lv__ after dark, and she started home, she 
had a prett}^ good road through the thick woods 
for about a mile, and when nearly half way home 
three animals crossed the road just a little ahead 
of her, and she thought they were panthers, and 
when they got across the road they stopped, and 
she thought the bravest way was the safest, and 
she gathered up a big dead limb and made at 
them and hollered; they ran up a big oak tree 

near the road, and she stood there and hollered 
until John Hall heard and answered, and she 
told him for him and the boys to fetch their guns 
and dogs and come quick, she had three panthers 
treed, and he told her to stay there and keep up 
all the noise she could, and they run and shot 
them, and they proved to be wildcats; John said 
one of them was the largest wildcat he ever saw. 
That stick was kept about the house for years 
and was known as "Mamma's Wildcat Club." 




52 

iN OUR boyhood we had cold winters, 
;T| ^ but they were not quite so long as now, 
we had ver}- deep snows and sometimes 
there would come a sleet on top of the 
snow; and then if we could find a deer on the 
prairie, and sometimes they would staj^ in the 
valleys; and if we would get the dogs after them 
when they would break through the ice and the 
dogs could run on top, they would soon catch it. 

At one time the Baptist people held their 
association near my Father's, and Jack Neal, 
Cornelius May and Andrew Hanson started on 
horseback from their homes North of Tower Hill, 
and in riding through the prairie where Tower 
Hill now stands they scared up a yearling deer, 
and run it on their horses and caught it and 
brought it to my father's and dressed it, and it 
wa? fat and we had fresh venison through the 
meeting. 



53 



SCoiu t-fic f iouccT^ ffKabc ?)]lcat. 




|HEY would cut down a pretty large 
oak tree and saw off a block about 
three feet long, square at both ends, 
set it upon end, build a hot little fire 
in the middle of the upper end and watch it to 
keep it from burning too far out, and by burning 
two or three days they would get a hole burned 
out in the shape of a basin, then hang a heavy 
maul to a spring-pole, so that the spring-pole 
would partly raise the maul; then shell some 
corn and put it in, and put in a little w^ater to 
toughen the husk; then stand there and jerk the 
maul down on the corn and beat it into meal. 
And it took a good deal of jerking to make a 
little meal. 



54 



Out 9IaHuc §tatc. 

LlylNOIS being our native State; the 
^T| ^ State of our cradle, and is to be of our 
grave. The State where our pathway 
has been strewn with beauties; where 
the God of Nature has been so plainly seen in 
every swelling bud and in every snovvflake; 
where the very air has been laden with mercies. 
No one can be surprised if our feelings prompt 
us to speak pretty highly of our native home, 
Illinois, the great fertile prairie valley between 
the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, like a choice 
gem placed between the more hilh^ states on the 
East and the West. Illinois, the second and 
soon to be the first agricultural state in the 
Union; destined by her Creator to do a worthy 
share in feeding the world. Her merits and her 
charms have drawn on the intelligence and in- 
dustry of ever}^ nation upon the globe. 



55 



fioviect ^'Voth. 




HE Author wouid like to picture to 
the reader the mold-board plow and 
the reap-hook, the flint-lock gun and 
shuck horse collar, the hominy mor- 
tar, the goose-quill pen, the fire-place and skillet, 
the deer-skin coat and pants, the whip-saw and 
the frow, the pot-rack, and the ox-yoke. We 
would like to show you the pioneer's tramping 
out wheat on the ground, with their six or eight 
horses going round and round: then we would 
like to show you the four or five big yoke of 
cattle breaking prairie, and the plow cutting 
about two feet and turning over every sod dis- 
tinct to itself; then to see the three boys taking 
ever}^ alternate sod, the foremost boy striking 
over-handed cutting holes in the sod with an ax, 
the second boy dropping the seed corn in that 
hole, the third boy striking over-handed and 
with the back of the ax closing up that hole, 
keeping motion the while by the foremost boy 



56 



repeating the word "now", "now", "now", and 
them three boys could plant five acres of sod 
corn in a day. Now we go and see the man 
riveing out clapboards to cover his cabin; and 
we would love to show you how the cabin is 
built and covered and not a nail used only in the 
door. Now we go and see the ten or twelve boys 
and girls pulling flax, but you must watch for 
snakes; see that little spider of a girl, she is ahead, 
because she is quick. See that field of corn, the 
crows and blackbirds have taken it nearl}- all. . 
We would like to show you the smoke-rags 
hanging to the horses' harness, to drive away 
the greenhead flies. 



57 




MocaLv 

UR Father and Mother was very 
careful to try and teach us to rever- 
ence God, and to love our country 
and our home, and to love our neigh- 
bors; and they tried to teach us that the people 
are not bad, but good; and until this day, we do 
not like to hear men talk that the people are so 
bad, for it is not true. The masses of the people 
aim to do right; they love righteousness, but 
they often make mistakes, and at an unguarded 
moment do things which they are sorry for; but 
they aim to be good. And when we speak of 
the pioneers being so good we would not dare 
to say that they were any better than the people 
are now, but we do not think there was quite so 
much temptation to do bad then as now. 




58 

|HE writer has lived in Illinois more 
than three score and ten years, and 
in that time we have se^-n great 
changes. We have seen the change 
from the ox-team to the steam engine; we have 
seen the change from the wooden mold-board 
plow to the steam plow; we have seen the change 
from the reap-hook to the self-binder, and from 
the lizzard to the automobile; from the bull-ton- 
gue corn plow to the two-horse riding cultivator. 
We have witnessed the change from the business 
being carried on through the medium of trade 
and traffic to the time when most men have 
money in the bank. During the first half of our 
seventy years, Illinois was yet in its infancy and 
grew very slowly, but during the last half she 
has developed very rapidly, and has made rapid 
stride in the way of improvement, and other 
great changes are to come 3'et, and they will 
come pretty rapidly. The spirit of enterprise is 



59 



on the wing and moving swiftly, and the outlook 
is flattering. The people are learning; they are 
laying down their party prejudice, and looking 
at the situation more wisely. We have had an 
era of extreme corruption, but that has nearly 
had its day, for the voters see that their prejudice 
is the only thing which made that corruption 
possible. We think we can see reasons to be- 
lieve that the corruption and lawlessness will 
have to go; and the drunkenness will have to go. 
The few party leaders have kept the voters 
blinded as long as they can, and when the peo- 
ple get their eyes wide open they are mighty 
and the law-breakers and corruptionists will 
have to take a back seat. 



6o 

^ fi c S c fi CO f i II t Pi G C a 6 i n. 

|MN early days there was an empty cabin 
5T| ^ in our neighborhood at one time, and a 
^^ man came along and wanted to teach 
^^ school, if he could get fifteen scholars 
he would teach three months for one dollar and 
fifty cents per scholar, and would take his pay 
in corn, wheat, pork, beans, honey, beeswax, or 
anything, and he boarded around among the 
families who sent pupils. All right; and the 
men went into the woods and cut some "linn" 
(linden) trees and split them open and hewed 
some of the worst splinters off the flat side and 
bored holes and put legs in the round side and 
made us some good benches; we took the oxen 
and hauled up some wood and Mr. Anderson 
?et in to teach. He did not know much more 
than a goat, but that made no difference. Brady 
Phelps' children would fetch their little, speckled, 
bench-legged "fiste", and he would stay in the 
house, under their bench, and when we would 



6i 



stick our feet back under the bench and touch 
him he would bite us on the heel. Frank Perry- 
man was just about my age and just about as 
mean; at the noon hour he and I would get a 
wild grape-vine, and one take hold of either end 
and get outside the door, then send a boy in to 
run him out, and when he jumped to go over 
the grape-vine we would fetch a yank and throw 
that dog twenty feet high; when we had sent 
him up a few times he quit the school of his own 
free will and accord. 




62 

S fi c t & t i V l f tV i 1 \ & a'i f 1 j ^ a ij i> . 

IN our earl}- bo} hood, Shelbyville, our 
county seat, was a small place; General 
W. F. Thornton kept store just North 
of where the court house now stands; 
Roundy & Dexter kept store just West of the 
courthouse; Dan. Earpkept saloon on the South; 
Ben. Talman kept tavern on the East; Rand 
Higgins run the river mill; Burrel Roberts was 
county clerk; Ed. Shallenbarger was surveyor;" 
E. A. Douthit was sheriff and collector. Joseph 
Oliver was there, also the Trembles, Tacketts, 
Cutler's, and C. Woodard. JohnD. Bruster run 
the tan-yard on the hill. Anthony Thornton 
was the leading lawyer; Sam'l W. Moulton came 
there when we were a boy. We remember hear- 
ing Abraham Eincoln plead a divorce case in 
the old court house sixty years ago. At that 
time the lawyers traveled from place to place on 
horseback, and carried their books in their 
saddle-bags. 



63 



^%iKtb dtli^IaL^. 

N our boyhood the bears aud panthers 
!T' ^ were mostly killed out, but there was 
a great many wolves and wildcats, but 
we did not fear the wild animals half 
so much as we did the rattlesnake and spreading 
viper, both of which was very plentiful, especial- 
ly the rattlesnake; while the other snakes would 
run away, the}- would coil up and make ready 
to strike. The timber rattlesnake grew to be 
very large, I have seen them at least four feet 
long and very thick to their length, but the 
spots on them were a bright copper color and 
they were easil}^ seen; the prairie rattlesnake 
was much smaller, of a dirt color, and hard to 
see. 



64 



'(T^ric i^llnfcii Sl-cc 




IHEN the writer was a bo\', maybe 
fourteen or fifteen years old, m\^ 
Father ow^ned a nice fat little steer 
that left home and took up at Enos 
Jones and my Father wanted him for beef and 
he told me to go and put a rope halter on him 
and fetch him home. I went and got him in 
the stable, made a halter and put it on him and 
when about half-way home he got unruly, the 
halter slipped off, and he broke to go back, but 
I was a good runner, was barefooted, and I 
headed him; then he took the road for William 
Sullivan's, and there w^as a race, he went straight 
for the house. Mr. Sullivan had four daughters 
and I w^as very bashful, and he also had two big 
dogs of wdiom I was afraid, but I could not afford 
to lose my steer; over the fence he went and I at 
his heels, one big dog came running around one 
corner of the house from one way and the other 
dog from the other way, and made at the steer, 



65 



they had him between them; both doors of the 
house were open, the women were engaged in 
quilting and were not apprised of our arrival, 
and the first they knew we went in at the door, 
turned the table over on the cat, while as he 
went in at the door I caught him by the tail and 
as he went out at the other door, I fetched a 
yank to the North, w^hich he w^as not expecting, 
thus throwing him flat against the wall, then he 
bellowed as loud as he could; then the women 
wanted to kill me and the steer too for scareing 
them so bad; I was hot and scared too, but I tied 
my steer to a tree, took off my hat, backed up 
in the shade of a tree, made a long speech upon 
the short-comings of steers and dogs, and that 
boys were no better; they all listened and when 
the}' got to laughing, we grew eloquent and used 
big words and lots of them, while they got to 
clapping their hands and laughing big and loud 
I left them in fine humor. 



66 



QfvivnMCU Qon\ti:^uctiovi. 




lAYBH the reader would like to know 
how the pioneers made the chimneys 
to their cabins. They would build 
up with split logs to the arch, and 
rive out sticks about one and one-half inches 
thick and two inches wide; they would make 
mortar of clay and mix in some grass to hold it 
together; they would make a scaffold and throw 
the mortar on that scaffold, and one boy or man 
would stand there and roll that stiff mud into 
what was called "cats"; those "cats" were about 
three inches thick and eight inches long. The 
builder stayed up in the inside of the chimney, 
they would pitch the "cats" and the sticks up 
to him, he w^ould put on a round of the "cats", 
then a round of the sticks, then pound the sticks 
down with a hand maul so that the mud was 
about one and one-half inches thick on both sides 
of the sticks; and that w^as a safe chimney for 
twenty years. 



67 



JHE Author of this little book feels 
^Tf \ ^ proud of being a native-born citizen 
^^ ^ of one of the central counties of the 
MS^^ best State in the best Government 
under the sun. Illinois is where things grow; 
the corn, the wheat, the hay, the oats, the fruit, 
the vegetables, the horses, the cattle, the hogs; 
the eggs don't grow on bushes in Illinois, but 
the}^ come as near to it as they do in au}^ other 
State. And not only these things, which have 
been mentioned, grow in Illinois, but brains 
grow in Illinois too; and if they are about to be 
bothered to find a man who is smart enough for 
President, tell them not to be uneasy, that 
Illinois can furnish five hundred, if that many 
were needed. Yes, Illinois is where things 
grow. 




68 

efCo^pitaflh|. 

|HEN you would ride up to a pioneer's 

cabin the first thing was the hounds' 

"boo," "boo," then all would come 

to the door. "Come in," "come in." 

You go in, 3^ou see from one to three rifle guns 

in the rack, you also see deer-skins and turkey- 
wings all about the house. ' " Have you had your 
dinner?" "No." "Gals, get him some dinner. " 
You find plenty of milk and butter, bread, ven- 
ison, potatoes, and almost everything that grows 
on the farm or in the woods. You speak of 
going. "Oh, stay all night." You conclude 
to stay; then you must tell j^our name and where 
3'ou live, and how long you have lived there, 
how many children j^ou have, who you married, 
and where you come from, also how many deer 
you have killed this wanter. You are expected 
to tell it all, and the children will size you up 
very carefully; and then by the time the man 
tells 3'ou all he knows, and the woman tells you 
all she knows, and all that her mother knew, 
and all that her grandmother knew, and all the 
children tell you all they know, you do not get 
much sleep. 



69 



cfict\ 



I a I o 11 . 




9 



|HE writer learned at an earl}- age to 
have a great respect for the church, 
not for an}' one particular denomina- 
tion, but for all who seek to serve 
their Creator with all their heart, according to 
their best understanding of His will. We was 
raised under the teaching and influence of the 
Methodist. Baptist, Presbyterian and the Chris- 
tian churches. John Hall and others was preach- 
ing the Methodist doctrine, Willis Whitfield the 
Baptist doctrine, McCreary Bone the Presbyterian 
and Bushrod Henry (the father of our present 
J. O. Henry) preached the Christian doctrine — 
all of them good, zealous Christian men. We 
loved them all. At that day a boy would not 
have been allowed to speak with disrespect of a 
preacher at all, it would have been considered 
almost like blasphemy to thus speak of a preach- 
er with disrespect. 



70 



91tafiiM\j eKatj 



|N our bo3^hood, we had little use for 

ITi ^ meadows, we could go out in the prairie 

^^ and on the low land we could cut from 

\ three to four tons of good hay per acre. 
A big boy could cut five tons per day, which 
would now be w^orth at least fifty dollars. When 
w^e W'as a boy, we went out to mow some ha}', 
and we found our good neighbor John Hall out 
there mowing, and he showed us whereto mow, 
where the grass was very good, and he said there 
was all the grass in that place we would both 
cut. When it was near noon and pretty hot, 
we were wanting water very much John called 
US to come to him, we went, and he brought out 
a very large, long watermelon from under some 
green hay beneath his wagon, and we got in the 
shade of his wagon. I do not think I have ever 
enjoyed a melon with more relish than I did 
that one. 




71 
^Un ^DcGt ovt \'\\c 3ce. 

:HE Deer is the most beautiful of all 
animals, very timid and harmless, has 
no disposition to fight any thing, unless 
it is wounded or hemmed in, it aims 
to save itself by flight; but hunters say it kills 
ev^cry snake that it finds, by jumping on the 
reptile with all its feet placed close together, thus 
cutting it to pieces with its sharp hoofs. 

It was, maybe, in the winter of 1844, it had 
been very cold for a long time, my elder brother 
would go to the spring for water ever}- evening- 
near sunset, and there was a large buck drinking 
in the spring, as the water was frozen up other 
places; my Father said "wait and I wall see if I 
can kill him," and he loaded up his big rifle 
and went down to the big locust tree South of 
the house, in plain view of the spring, and we 
saw him draw up against the tree and take aim, 
and "bang" went the rifle, and he ran to the 
spring, directly we heard him hollering, and the 



72 



two big bo\^s ran with all their might; the bullet 
had struck him on the horn, just where it joined 
his head, and stunned him, and he lay there 
until my Father caught him by the hind leg, 
when he sprang to his feet; there was a solid 
sheet of smooth ice, about fifteen feet across, and 
the deer could not hold very good on the ice; 
my Father said he had him down a dozen times, 
but could not keep him down; he got his front 
feet to the dry land once or twice, and my Father 
would jerk him back, but when ni}^ brothers got 
there they got hold of his horns and threw him 
down and they all piled on him and held him 
down until they cut his throat. My Father was 
a large, stout man, and he said that w'as the 
hardest scuffle he ever had. Such was pioneer 
life in Illinois. 




73 

N early days, Ben Overton kept a little 
grocery store in the woods, and when 
James Mitchell quit making whiskey, 
Ben went to St. Louis and bought a 
barrel of whiskey and put out the word that he 
would not sell it in any other way but by the 
drink, a picayune a drink. The men did not 
like him very well, they said he was mean. 
When Ben got home, on the Saturday after, the 
men gathered there from ten miles around, and 
now Ben thought he would have a big day. The 
men had their jugs hid in the bushes, and soon 
one of my uncle's and Bill Doyle got into a fight, 
just out under some trees, then while Ben's 
attention was diverted, the men run in at the 
back door and filled up their jugs, also one for 
each of the combatants, and when the last jug 
was full some one hollered: "Part 'em." They 
did not hardly leave Ben whiskey enough to 
"drown his trouble." 



74 

|M N our early boyhood we hardl}^ ever 
!¥■ ^ saw a buggy and there were not many 
^^ farmers who owned a wagon. At one 
^^ time there was to be a spelling contest 
between our school and one five miles East and 
we was bothered to decide how to get the girls 
there; but a day or two before the time for the 
spelling, there came a deep snow, and then we 
knew what to do; we had a very large yoke of 
oxen, we would hitch them to the big sled and 
we would have room for all, and when the da}^ 
came, soon afternoon, we hitched up and started 
around to gather up our load of boys and girls, 
and when we got them crowded closely into the 
sled, we found we had room for all only two, but 
we knew how to manage that, and I got on the 
back of old Pete, while cousin Frank got on old 
Mike and we struck out; but before we got there 
we had a long hill to go down, and on one side 
there was a pretty deep ditch washed out and 



75 

when we started down the hill the steers got to 

going faster and faster, and when we saw that 

we were running into that ditch, we hollered 

"hoa", and the steers stopped very suddenl3^ 

while we "scooted" over their heads into the 

deep snow; we jumped up as quick as we could, 

and looked back, the sled was standing up on 

one side, while the boys and girls were piled up 

in that ditch three feet deep, but there was no 

one hurt much, and we brushed the snow off, 

and got there just at dark. Our boys and girls 

kept laughing so, that w^e found it necessary to 

ask leave to get up and explain what they were 
laughing about. I told it as funny as I could, 
and I was in practice then for telling things 
funny; I also tried to show how old Pete was 
standing, when I looked around, but I did not 
have legs enough to show it just right; when I 
got through, it took a long time to restore order. 
When we had spelled for a long time and all 
were "spelled down" on both sides, except our 
brother Albert on our side and Manda Johnson 
on their side, and when they had spelled for two 
hours, and neither one had missed a word, the 
judges decided to call it a "draw" and dismissed. 




76 

;T one time, in our early recollection, 
my Father bought a number of year- 
lings early one spring, and the highest 
price he paid was three dollars a head. 
He kept them until they were over two years old, 
and I think there w^ere sixteen steers among 
them, and he sold the steers to Irvin Melton for 
eight dollars a head. One spring, when I was 
a small boy, he sold to Wilson Perr3mian, his 
cousin, eight cows and calves for eight dollars 
each — sixty-four dollars for. all. He got that all 
in silver half-dollars, and put it in an old tin 

bucket and sat it up on the cupboard, and the 
same year, about September, he sold to John 
Selby one hundred head of hogs for one hundred 
dollars, all in silver, and he put it in the same 
bucket, and when the neighbor's children w^ould 
come over, w^e would get it down and pour it out 
on the floor, to show them how much money we 
had. Finally John Hodson borrowed it and 
entered three forties of land, where New Hope 
now stands. 



77 




C9nc (^^C|q;>. 



IIXTV Years ago, when we were at 
work in the field, and would hear the 
cranes, out on the prairie, making a 
great noise, we knew they were nest- 
ing. They would go into the lakes and gather 
the rushes and pile them up very much like a 
large shock of ha}-, so that it w^ould come above 
the water, then they would make a little flat 
place on top and deposit two eggs on that flat 
place; the eggs was a little larger than a goose 
Qgg, while they were shaped just like a quail's 
Qgg, they were white in color with small brown 
specks all over them. When we could get a 
hat full of prairie hen's eggs, and we believe no 
better flavored egg can be found, when thej^ 
were boiled, then with a dish of fresh butter, a 
boy was surely fixed. 



78 



^ooh § 



ticn 



b^. 




|HE Author feels very proud of having 
had the good influence of such good 
friends as Pascal Hinton, James 
Rhoads, Berry Turner, Jasper L. 
Douthit, Anthony Thornton, Henry Carpenter, 
John Kitchell, Sylvester Cosart, and many, very 
many others. Some of them are gone, but we 
have not given them up. The influence and 
friendship of such men has made our pathway 
brighter, and has made life worth living; and 
all we are we owe it to the influence of such 
good friends. 



79 



xouc. 



T'"-"-'^ .-,..- ^y-g -^ ^1^^ greatest attribute of God 



%^ lyi -^^ ''■ 




ud the noblest trait of man. 
Love redeemed the world and brings 
salvation to men. 
Love casts out all fear, and purifies the heart. 
Love rocks the cradle of virtue, and brings 
peace to the nations. 

Love tunes the song of the lark, and paints 
the rose. 

Love indites the prayer, and speeds the answer. 
Love tempers the storm and hallows the calm. 
Love smiles in ever}^ swelling bud, and whis- 
pers in every passing breeze. 

Love softens the pillow and sweetens the dream. 

No pen can ever write, 
No mind can ever span 
The length and breadth, the depth and height 
Of the love of God to man. 




8o 



HEN I and Betsey married first, 
We both was very poor; 

When work was very scarce, sometimes 
The wolf got near the door. 

And Betsey said: "Let's buy some hens — 

"The papers saj- 'it will pay'; 
"I think you had better look around 

"And buy the kind that lay." 

I bought a dozen plymouth hens 

And put them in a pen; 
When Betsy went and looked, she found 

An egg for every hen. 

"Whoopee! I know just what to do; 

"I'll buy a dozen more — 
"And when we get that many eggs, 

"We are not so very poor." 



8i 



We raised a hundred hens that year; 

Next year, three hundred more — 
And Betsy, with a knowing wink, 

Said, ''We have struck it, sure." 

We don't care much what kind we have- 
There's not much in a name; 

If people treat their chickens right, 
They "shell out" just the same. 

We have eleven hundred now. 
Blue, yellow, black and white; 

And Betsy says: "Old man, I think 
"They are mixed up now just right." 

And late, like in the evening 

We get our baskets off their pegs, 

And "hike out" in the chicken yard 
To gather in the eggs. 

We ship two cases every day; 

Oh, my! but aint it funny? 
I sit around and read the news. 

And Betsy counts the money. 




82 

;HE Human family is restless and dis- 
contented; constantly in quest of 
something, and know not what that 
something is. There is an aching 
void in the mind, which men are constantly 
seeking to satisfy, and very many remedies have 
been tried and failed. Some have tried great 
wealth and it has failed; some have tried great 
learning, and it has failed; some have tried 
fame, and it has failed; some have resorted to 
strong drink, and it has failed; also, many other 
things have been tried to satisfy that void and 
failed. Man is out of his element, consequently 
unhappy. Take a fish out of the water and it 
will perish and die, because it is out of its ele- 
ment. Man was created for peace and harmony 
with his God. When he had violated the law 
and was put out of the Garden, he lost his ele- 
ment; hence this restless, unhappy condition. 
Now, he may be represented as being blind — in 



83 



utter darkness, in quest of something and knows 
not what it is. But God, in His Great Mercy, 
has put a remedy within our reach; an efficient 
antidote is prepared and brought to your door, 
and not onh' so, but It knocks and asks admis- 
sion; It comes in the person of a gentle, loving 
Spirit, whispering in accents of pity: "Oh! come 
to me, and find rest"; ever, ever calling, calling: 
"Believe, on me, and find peace." That dear 
Holy Ghost comes to your pillow at night. ' 'Oh ! 
trust in Me and I will restore you to your proper 
element; believe in Me and I wnll drive away all 
this restless discontent" . Our fathers and moth- 
ers, in their day, heard and obeyed this same 
loving call, and found peace, by being placed in 
their native element — peace with God. 



Out on the mountain, cold and bare, 
With restless feet we roam; 

But now, we come with humble prayer: 
Lord, lead us safely home. 



84 



'^Pvtee '5ovuC1:i^. 




|HE Human family owe allegiance to 
*i ^ three great powers — their God, their 
Country, and their Home; and the 
three are so inseparably connected 
that a person can hardly be true to one without 
being true to all; there is a connecting link that 
binds them together. We owe our allegance to 
God because He is the author of our existence, 
and gives us all the untold blessings that we 
enjoy, and to Him w^e look for the hope of a 
blessed immortality beyond this life, and by Him 
we enjoy the blessings of our Country and our 
Home. We owe allegiance to our Country be- 
cause by it we enjoy protection in our life and 
property; it guarantees to us the right to worship 
God according to the dictates of our own con- 
science, and be protected in our Home. And to 
the Home. Oh! how shall we begin the Home? 
The most sacred place on earth, around whose 
hearthstone the foundation is laid for the weal 



or woe of the Nation. Oh I say not the Home is 
not a power of all earthly powers; the Home is 
the nucleus, the Alpha and Omega, the biggest, 
biggest word pertaining to earthly things, spelled 
with four letters, the hand is too feeble to write, 
and the tongue is too feeble to tell, and the brain 
is too feeble to conceive all the meaning there is 
in that short word — Home. With its joys and 
its sorrows, its toi's and repose, its smiles and 
its tears, its births and its deaths, its cradle and 
its altar, its Bible and its pillow, its bitter and 
its sweet, its precepts and its examples. When 
orators and poets undertake to tell all the mean- 
ing of that short word, let them pause and think, 
and think, and think; and when it shall have 

been declared that Time shall be no more; and 
when the last trumpet shall have sounded and 
when Angels shall have tuned their harps anew 
and shall have struck up the ever new glad song 
of redemption, through the Blood; and when the 
pearly gates shall have been thrown wide open, 
to welcome the redeemed and blood-washed 
throng from earth: Oh! then, Home, Home. 
Home forever-more. 





86 

'^he &FPect ol 3n|fticVtcc. 

;EEP In the heart of every individual 
is an inclination to be good and to do 
"^^^ good, but sometimes that good desire 
is so counteracted by some evil in- 
fluence, that the poor individual unfortunately 
drifts into ruin. The doctrine of total depravity 
is all a mistake. The poor criminal often be- 
comes so by the influences which are brought to 
bear upon his mind; and the good people are 
often, more or less, responsible for his ruin, for 
their indifference and lack of diligence in trying 
to win him back to the path of honesty and 
justice. The people who are good need not take 
the praise to themselves, for they do not know 
what they would have done under certain other 
environments and influences; and often the poor 
criminal is more to be pitied than blamed; often 
in an unguarded moment he does things which 
he had no thought of doing, and he would then 
give his life to call it back. And when our 



87 



neighbor goes to the bad, let us, instead of 
exulting over his fall, rather shed a tear for him, 
and think, maybe, I have not done my duty to 
save him. But, fortunately, in our country, the 
good is so much greater than the bad, and the 
good influence so prevails over the bad, that 
God still deals with us in mercy, and sends the 
seedtime and harvest, and our people are a 
prosperous and happy people. 




^CiMt^ Qazc<y ^oz 9]le 



KNOW that my Redeemer lives, 
I know He cares for me; 

I know He full salvation gives, 
I know He sets me free. 



Why should I murmer or repine, 
While on life's stormy sea; 

Since God is with me all the time, 
And Jesus cares for me. 

Even in a dark and stormy night 

Though threatening clouds I see; 

This thought brings comfort and delight 
That Jesus cares for me. 

Each day I hear His gentle call: 
Saying, "Believe on me"; 

And since He notes each sparrow's fall 
I know He cares for me. 




89 

|HE Extreme greed for wealth comes 
nearer threatening the overthrow of 
this Government than any one thing. 
The disregard for law is the result of 
greed. The saloon is the child of greed. Money 
sharks have been very diligent in agitating all 
the party prejudice they can, for they know that 
if the voters la}- down their love for party name, 
they will work and vote together intelligently to 
overthrow the great wrongs, and there wall be a 
leveling up, and that class legislation will have 
to go, and the liquor traffic will have to go, and 
equal rights wall prevail. The people are in- 
telligent enough to know^ their wrongs, but they 
are so completely bound hand and foot by their 
party name, that they cannot help themselves. 
They know that the issues, which the leaders of 
the parties, have kept the voters divided upon 
for mau}^ years, was only "sham" issues, and 
not the real issues at all. The voters of this 



90 



country are intelligent on ever}' other question, 
but almost hopelessly insane on the question of 
part3\ There is no question now for which lec- 
turers are needed so much. If you kill the foolish 
blind party prejudice, the same stroke will kill 
every public wrong which exists in our land. 
We think we have some pretty good reasons to 
hope that the great wrongs will be righted within 
a few 3"ears; but there are no good reasons wh}^ 
they should not be righted within a few months. 



91 




1 



fvri.Nt- lutfC^mpe. 



F traveling through this vale of tears, 
We saw no better world than this; 

If looking on through endless years 
We caught no ray of Heavenly bliss. 



i^'^. 



Where could w^e go, to comfort find, 

Or what could then our spirits cheer; 

Still groping on in darkness, blind 

With sin and sorrow, everywhere. 

But, oh! our destiny is not sealed 

In bitter anguish, death and gloom; 

For God, has in His word revealed 
A better world, beyond the tomb. 

This thought, will give us joy and peace, 
While plodding on, in toils and cares, 

Knowing w^ell we'll have a sweet release; 
And Christ will wnpe away our tears. 



92 



Then goodbye sorrow, goodbye pain, 

Goodbye to all our doubts and fears, 

For He, who died and rose again 

Will smile and wipe away our tears. 

Let storms arise, and billows roll. 

We'll battle on, our three-score years- 

This thought's an anchor to our soul, 

That Christ will wipe away our tears. 

So glad, our destiny is not sealed 

In bitter anguish, death and gloom — 

For God has, in His word revealed 
A better world, beyond the tomb. 




93 

lOOD Men and Women study and 
counsel, what is best to do for the 
:-^ood of our people. And after a good 
^^^^-,_^ _-.^ ^^, deal of thinking, the writer concludes 
that there is nothing more potent for the safet}' 
of our Nation, than the family altar. Wise men 
have written on every other subject, and writers 
have seemed to overlook the family altar. The 
strength of the Nation is derived from the homes; 
and if the homes are good, the Nation is good. 
If the homes are bad, the Nation is bad. It is 
hard for the homes to be right good without the 
family altar. So the safety of the Nation depends 
greatly upon the familj^ altar. It is a guard 
against the temptations which surround us. It 
prepares the mind for that which is good, and is 
an efficient antidote for our sins and our sorrows. 
The future life of the child depends very greatly 
upon the family altar. God bless the family 
altar. 





94 

Sell Sactij^ice. 

JT WAS one of the characteristics of the 
|T| ^ early settlers to love one another, and 
^^ we love to think of the man}- noble men 
I and women who made great sacrifices 
for their fellow-man; but none could ever come 
up with Jasper L. Douthit. Havino^ been brought 
to Illinois, by his parents, when a very small 
boy, one of the first things he seemed to learn 
was self-sacrifice for others. He caught the 
Spirit of Love to others, and outstripped au}^ man 
in Illinois. No man in Illinois has made such 
self-sacrifice for others as Jasper L. Douthit. 
He has given his whole life for others. He is a 
Unitarian preacher, and he is not only Unitarian 
in name, but if people serve the God whom his 
mother taught him to serve, whether Methodist 
or Baptist, or any other denomination, he loves 
them just the same. So he is a real Unitarian. 
When he has been persecuted b}' the people, who 
did not understand him, he worked on, and his 



95 



actions said: "Father forgive them, they know 
not what they do" ; and his great big heart over- 
flowing with love, he sought to do them good. 
Few men have had better opportunities to know 
him than we have; and Jasper is as able to cope 
with the intricate problems of statesmanship as 
almost any man in the land, and yet simple as a 
child. If he sees you in trouble, his eyes will 
fill with tears. Now, in his old age, he is the 
hardest working man we ever knew. He is no 
lover of money, and when he makes money it 
just goes, with the overflowing of his heart, for 
the good of others. 




96 

tla^tii *3^rc jiibice. 

IE BELIEVE there is no wrong in our 
good country so potent in perpetuat- 
ed ^ ^ '-™ ing evil, as the party prejudice of the 
;-,- voters. The prejudice for political 

party is what makes possible every great wrong 
which exists in our land. The voters would vote 
together, intelligently, to correct every wrong 
were it not for their prejudice for their party. 
When one political party takes a stand for a good 
thing, the other party makes it their business to 
oppose them. The corruption which existed in 
the state of Missouri, never could have existed 
only for the party prejudice. The disregard for 
law, which has given the President so much 
trouble, and cost so much mone}^ would have 
been nipped in the bud, only for the party prej- 
udice. The American voter is intelligent on 
every other subject, but on the subject of political 
party, he is deplorably insane. They do not 
vote so much for men and principle, but are 



97 

blindly governed by party name. You kill the 
foolish blind party prejudice and the same stroke 
kills every great political wrong in our land. 
Each party will go down into the dirt to court 
the friendship of every low, dirty element who 
has a vote. Kill the part}' prejudice and law- 
lessness and anarchy will have to hide their 
deformed faces. When it is found that a man is 
not willing to obey the laws of this good country 
a committee should wait upon him and tell him 
that the sooner he packs his trunks the better. 
We have a class of rich, aristocratic anarchists 
who w^ant to run this Government; then we have 
a class of low, ignorant and dirty anarchists at 
the tail end, and the country would be better off 
without either. The American people are a 
country loving people, and they want to do right 
and vote right; but their love of party has such 
complete control over them that they cannot 
always do right; but they must saj^ and do what 
their party leaders say for them to do. The party 
leaders give us issues to contend over and keep 
us divided, which we know are not the issues. 
So the love for political party is the mother of 
every great public wrong which exists, and it is 
the only thing which makes possible every public 




98 

3ut'cnipGravtce. 

IE BELIEVE there is no evil in our 
land so great as the use of intoxicat- 
ing liquors. No evil is causing so 
much sorrow , so many tears, blighting 
so many bright hopes and sunny prospects, 
breaking up so many happ3' homes. We punish 
the robber by the law, and no robber can com- 
pare with the Robber Intemperance. He robs 
the home of its sanctity and its joys; it robs the 
brain of its power and its intelligence; it robs 
the heart of its love and its emotions; it robs the 
man of his manliness and reduces him to a level 
with the brute; it robs youth of its hopes and its 
prospects; it robs childhood of everything which 
makes for comfort and happiness. We furnish 
the murder by law. No murderer is so cold- 
blooded as is intemperance. It murders one 
hundred thousand x\merican citizens annually. 
If an epidemic were to break out, like smallpox, 
cholera, or yellow fever, which was destroying 



99 



half as many lives our authorities would quaran- 
tine against it very quickly, and would spend 
millions of dollars, if need be, to stop the devas- 
tation, while that which intemperance is making 
no great notice is taken, for if we do, we will 
hurt our part}^ for the whisky element will vote 
with the other party. Now, gentle reader, isn't 
it better to stand for the right, for God and the 
home, and for the country? even at the risk of 
being defeated in the election, than to stand for 
wrong in order to carry the election. Think of 
gray heads going to their graves in sorrow, be- 
cause intemperance has ruined their children, 
and your vote helped to cause that ruin. Think 
of the men who are now in the various state 
prisons, and your vote helped to put them there. 
Think of the oceans of tears that wives and 
mothers have shed, and your vote helped to 
cause those tears. Think of the hunger and cold 
that little innocent children have suffered, and 
your vote helped to cause that suffering. Look 
at that little innocent boy and think that maybe 



TOO 



that little boy will fill a drunkard's grave, and 
my vote will help to cause it so, because of ni}- 
love for my beloved party. Look at the little 
innocent girl, and think maybe, that little girl 
is to be the wife of a drunkard, and that my vote 
helped to cause it so, for the sake of my party. 
Dear reader, let me appeal to you : Why should 
we rate political party above every other con- 
sideration? Oh! the cruel monster, intemperance. 

No pen can ever write the enormity of his crimes. 
No orator's tongue can ever tell the magnitude 
of his guilt. Like a vile serpent, he tightens his 
slimy coils around everything that is noble and 
good, of American institutions and American 
manhood. No place on earth is too sacred for 
his poisonous fangs. No hopes or prospects are 
too bright for his blighting and withering influ- 
ence. Oh! let us arise in our manhood and bury 
him so deep that there will be no possibility of 
his resurrection. How I would like to be one of 
the pall-bearers and help to bear him to his last 
resting place. Then a shout of joy would go up; 
a shout such as was never heard on the earth. 
A shout from the throats of millions of wronged 
and oppressed mothers and children. A shout 
of "peace on earth, good will to men!" 



lOI 



a §ab^icirii 




EAR Wife,I'veseen the saddest sight, 

I ever yet have seen; 
A mother begging at a gate. 

She looked so pale and lean. 



She had three children, by her side, 
Their clothes were old and poor; 

She said her husband came home drunk, 
i\nd turned them from the door. 

The little children had no shoes, 

And they were nearly froze. 
She said: "The trouble I have had 

There is nobody knows. ' ' 

She said: "I work most night and day," 
And this, too, is what she said: 

"Most all my wages go for drink, 
"And the children crv for bread." 



02 

She said: "I don't know what to do, 

"We have no place to go; 
"I know the children can't live long 

"Out in this sleet and snow." 

"I know they are ver}^ hungry, 

"And, I know they are very cold," 

She said: "My man drinks all the time, 
"And all our things are sold." 

"He often cries, and talks to me, 

"And says it is a shame — 
"And he tries so hard to quit it, 

"That I know he is not to blame." 

"I never say a word to him, 

"It would only make things worse — 
"The men who vote it in his road, 

"Are the men I blame the worst." 



IC3 



5pfie §?S^iafrt ^ibc. 




|HE Author of this little book has had 
VBin ^im a pretty happy life. We have had 
the same difficulties to contend with 
that other people have had, but we 
knew the bright side of things was the best side 
to look at, and we believe we have been able to 
see a brighter side to most things than most of 
the people have. Most everything that comes 
in our road has a bright side to it. if we are only 
able to see that bright side. If we are .seeking 
to do right, that fact, of itself, turns the dark 
side of the picture to the wall, and beautiful 
fields, singing birds, and blooming flowers are 
ours. If the readers of our little book would 
only cast off their unnecessary gloom and fore- 
bodings, the world would be brighter and happier 
and the people would be healthier and happier, 
and they would live a great deal longer. 



70-'- 



:o4 



% 



ocb-^Sue. 



y 




^OW, Gentle Reader, we bid you good- 
bye, wishing 3'ou much happiness 
and peace, and hoping you have been 
interested in reading the little book, 
and that you have read something in it which 
will do you good, that you may be the better 
prepared for the battles of life and for great use- 
fulness to others. That you will pardon whatever 
mistakes you have found; and that you will retain 
a kind feeling for the author; that when we meet, 
we may have a real, warm hand-shake, and that 
we may thus get better acquainted, and love 
each other more. Good-bye. 

The Author. 



^^^^'%i 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




014 752 000 1 ^ 




^W- 



^^ 



